I've always
liked the Marvel Legends Icons series of sorta sixth scale figures,
first produced by Toybiz,
and then carried on by Hasbro when they assumed the Marvel mantle.

But
2008 was not their year. The last release was in very late
07,
with Silver Surfer and Johnny Storm...and then nothing. While other
figures were shown at various shows and conventions, they weren't
making it to the shelf.

Thankfully, that's changed, at least for
the moment, with the release of four more in the series. We'd seen
these quite awhile back, so there's no surprise in terms of selection -
just that they finally made it out!

The wave consists of
Daredevil, Dark Phoenix, Colossus and Nightcrawler. There's a variant
regular Phoenix, as well as a variant Daredevil in a red/yellow suit,
but these may show up evenly packed in the cases as the wave continues,
so which is truly the regular and which is the variant is sort of up to
you.

I picked up the full set of four at Toys R Us for $20 each, and they
had two sets on the shelf. If you were following me on Twitter,
you would have gotten that haul update from me right from the store
pegs.

Packaging - ***
Even though it's been more than a year since the last release, these
are coming out in the style packaging. The plastic 'box' works well in
terms of shelf wear, and it does show off the figure, but the attempt
at posing them in the interior tray tends to just mess up their knees
and elbows, since the limbs are often not put in the right place to
begin with.

Sculpting - Daredevil,
Colossus, Nightcrawler ***1/2; Phoenix ***
If you're a fan of the line, then these will fit your expectations
pretty well. The detail work on all four is actually quite good, and
the sharpness of the facial sculpts on DD and Nightcrawler really gives
the figures the leg up. There isn't as much detail work in the face on
Colossus, but there shouldn't be - he's slightly smoother, cleaner
sculpt works with the metallic appearance they are going for.

Phoenix
isn't quite as good though, with a bit of the tootsie roll syndrome
happening in her hair, and a fairly basic face. She's pretty, but the
weird flying hair doesn't do it for me, and it's quite a bit thicker on
her right side than her left because of it, which just looks odd to me.
Her other issue that brings her down a bit from the rest is the
extremely skinny long legs, and the generally anorexic look all around.
Her limbs are almost insect-like - not a particularly attractive trait.

The
hand sculpts are well designed for the particular character. Daredevil
has one hand that can hold his weapon, while the other is done up in a
solid fist. Colossus also has one fist, and a threatening gesture hand.
Phoenix has two feminine gesturing hands, and Nightcrawler has his
funky three fingered mitts. His are also articulated, making them even
more poseable.

The height varies on these, with
Colossus standing the tallest at about 13", Nightcrawler at 12",
Phoenix at about 12 1/4", and DD the shortest at 11 1/2".

Paint - **1/2
It's important to keep in mind that these are only $20. Even though
they are large figures, and very solid, they are still just $20, so
some amount of paint slop is to be expected.

None
of what's here is a major issue, but rather a number of minor ones.
There's a few issues that are more aesthetic than quality as well.

The
quality issues are most noticeable around the face. On Daredevil, the
face paint is up on the edge of the cowl, and the silver face paint on
Colossus edges up on his hair. Dark Phoenix has a good work on the eyes
and lips, and the wash on her hair helps hide some of the thickness of
the strands. However, the gold is a bit gloppy, and isn't as consistent
in it's coverage as it should be.

They've used a black wash/mix
with the red on Colossus, and they've added black to the blue skin of
Nightcrawler, the red suit of DD, and even the red sections of
Nightcrawler's outfit. This is one of those issues of taste, and my
taste is that it's a bit too much.

It's not all bad though, and
areas like the eyes and lips of all of them, the blue highlights in
Nightcrawler's hair, and the yellow and black kneepads on Colossus look
terrific.

Articulation - Colossus,
Daredevil, Nightcrawler **1/2; Dark Phoenix **
The score here should be higher - much higher. These have all the
joints they really need, they just don't work as well as they should -
a common problem for this line, even when Toybiz had it.

I
am happy with the ball jointed necks on all four. They have a good
range of movement, and even the hair on Phoenix does not interfere too
much.

The ball jointed shoulders and
hips aren't as successful.
The shoulders on Colossus work well, and they work okay on Daredevil
and Phoenix. But they were practically immovable on Nightcrawler, and
his arms were forced to stay at weird angles. I had to heat them up
with very hot water, pull the arms off the ball, and then use needle
nose pliers to turn them enough to allow the arms to move down toward
the torso. Once I did, he looked good, but they still wouldn't move
freely.

This was an issue with the hips
on all four. The legs
turn on the thigh side of the ball, but the post/pin joint at the torso
won't turn. The legs will move in the one direction that the ball is
already in - outward and inward to the side on all four - but I wasn't
able to get any of them to turn, even with the needle nose pliers,
without tearing up the surface. What good is getting them to work if
you scratch them all up?

The other joints worked much
better. All
but Colossus have double pin elbows (he has less mobile single pin
versions), and all four have double pin knees. These are a little weak
on Phoenix, making it tough for her to stand at times (and resulting in
her slightly lower score), but generally
worked fine on the others.

The wrists are pin/post, with a
pretty
good range of movement, which was particularly useful on Phoenix and
Colossus. The ankles are this same sort of joint, which meant they
could turn inward and outward slightly, depending on how you turned the
joint.

There's an ab crunch joint as
well as a cut waist, and
both helped make up for some of the issues with the hips, at least
allowing the torso to be turned at an angle to the legs.

Nightcrawler
actually sports more articulation than the others, having his two
fingers and two toes articulated on both hands and feet. He also has
that cool bendy tail which works well, and stays attached to the body
even in extreme poses. Had he not had so many issues with the shoulders
and hips, he would have easily scored another full star in
this
category.

Accessories - Daredevil *1/2;
Colossus, Phoenix, Nightcrawler Bupkis
Unfortunately, accessories have never been the strong suit of this
line, with a few exceptions.

Only
Daredevil comes with anything this time around, his specially designed
weapon that can be many things. Here, it's in its Nunchaku form. The
plastic handles are a little warped, but the real rope between them
looks great, and you should be able to get some decent poses with it,
even if he can only hold it in one hand.

Fun Factor - ***
These could have easily score higher in this category, since they could
be excellent toys. Unfortunately, the issue holding them back from
another half to full star is the wonky articulation.

Value - ***1/2
How many sixth scale figures are out there for $20 these days? Yea, not
many. And there are others - like the Batman figures done by Mattel -
that have far less articulation and cost more. This is about the same
price tag we saw back in 2007, and with prices of much smaller figures
hitting ten bucks and more, you can't complain here.

Things To Watch Out For
-
Not much. I looked
closely at the two of each, and the paint work was very consistent.
However, the interior tray can cause a lot of stress on the knees and
elbows if the figure isn't put in correctly. If you can, avoid any
where the joints are bent at odd angles in the package.

Overall - Colossus,
Nightcrawler, Daredevil ***; Phoenix **1/2
At twenty bucks a piece, I'm not going to complain too much. In fact,
the low price helps minimize the effects of issues with the paint in
particular, and
somewhat with the lack of accessories.

But
the annoying articulation ends up being more than I can allow for, no
matter what price. If the joints simply worked they way they were
designed to, these figures would have scored MUCH higher, particularly
the three men. With some work on the joints, and a bit of frustration,
you'll get them into a pose you like, but it's way more work than it
should be considering how many joints they have.

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Yea, it's a five star system and not a four star system like
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